Florida State is No. 2 in The Associated Press college football poll, the Seminoles’ best ranking since 2000.

Alabama remains No. 1 and received 56 first-place votes from the media panel. But the other national championship contenders right behind the Crimson Tide took advantage of Oregon’s loss to Stanford on Thursday night and moved up.

Florida State got the other three first-place votes. The Seminoles were last ranked this high during the first half of the 2000 season, the year after they won their most recent national title.

Ohio State is No. 3, followed closely by Baylor. Stanford is fifth. Oregon dropped to No. 6. The rest of the top 10 includes three more Southeastern Conference teams. No. 7 is Auburn, followed by Clemson of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Missouri and Texas A&M.

The BCS standings do not take into account the AP poll.

Notre Dame and Texas Tech dropped out of the rankings after losses and No. 23 Texas and No. 25 Georgia moved back in.

The Top 25 had 59 voters instead of its usual 60 because one of the voters was on a mandatory one-week furlough by his media outlet.